Long, slow attrition continues
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| Ridcully Jan 20, 2015 5:40 AM EDT |
This decay started in earnest a couple of years ago. I can still remember that on a long buried LXer thread circa 2-3 years ago, I remarked that "the train has left the station and left Microsoft on the platform".......and in discussions with a friend of mine at that time, we both agreed that Redmond had crossed the line in the sand and there were too many straws in the wind to ignore the implications that the company was now in decline. I wonder what Microsoft will do. My perceptions are that Microsoft is now being thoroughly rejected in the market place as regards smart phones but additionally is losing the laptop area. As SJVN has remarked: 2017 should see Chrome OS dominating the desktop market. Cynically, as long as you don't call it Linux, the consumers "go for it". Linux is so difficult to use and it's for geeks. Microsoft is still an enormous company with huge cash reserves......I can't see it lying down and dying gracefully....I suspect it will try to use patents to try to bleed Linux-based companies in one way or another.. Windows10 ? I think most users are now sick of the upgrades that are put out so that Redmond gets cash flow, because that's all they are in my opinion. And at last I think users are getting very sceptical about statements that try to show that this latest version of Windows will solve all your problems. It never does. |
| CFWhitman Jan 20, 2015 10:25 AM EDT |
I certainly agree that Microsoft has started to decline. Of course, I remember when IBM started to decline; it doesn't necessarily mean a death sentence. Microsoft isn't going anywhere quickly because they are too entrenched in certain aspects of the business world, but they need to provide what business owners want. Whether they do this or not, they are in decline; that's just the nature of the business they are in. I think that right now, Microsoft needs Windows 10 (though I think they should have called it Windows 9). In reality, they needed Windows 8 to be what Windows 10 is, or not to have released 8 yet at all. Still Windows 10 appears to check the boxes needed to keep the businesses that are using Windows now using Windows a bit longer. It also provides a means for individuals that use the desktop programs that are only available for Windows to keep going with what they have been doing. Eventually, though, a lot of that software will be available for other platforms (or something else that does the job will be). In the end, for Microsoft to succeed, it has to stop relying on lock-in to maintain its customer base and business model. That can't work forever. IBM found a way to stay viable, and Microsoft can too, but bully-boy techniques eventually stop working, and you have to figure out a way to provide something your customers actually want rather than continue to create artificial needs. |
| NoDough Jan 20, 2015 11:27 AM EDT |
Ridcully wrote:...long buried LXer thread circa 2-3 years ago, I remarked that "the train has left the station and left Microsoft on the platform" I suspect you mean this one: http://lxer.com/module/forums/t/35134/ But you may be remembering this one: http://lxer.com/module/forums/t/31841/ |
| Ridcully Jan 20, 2015 5:31 PM EDT |
Okay NoDough, I'll bite.........how the blue blazes did you find those ? I didn't bother and took a guesstimate on 2-3 years........I simply knew that I had made those comments and they were hidden away in the archives. I've never bothered to go searching like that, so I'm interested. CFWhitman, thanks for the comments. It's very pleasant to go back to Torvald's original statement: "I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones." And you now realise Linux continued the paradigm shift away from the proprietary software cathedral in the same way that GNU Hurd did but at a much accelerated rate. I'm sure Linus never envisaged what his little OS would do......The "Little Engine that Could" springs to mind. Whatever, I am utterly certain that Linux in any of its avatars, is the future world OS.......Windows will linger but sooner or later I believe Microsoft will either be forced over to Linux or disappear totally. I just wanna be around to see it happen. |
| NoDough Jan 21, 2015 10:34 AM EDT |
Well, I couldn't seem to get the URL to format correctly, but I went to Google and searched... site:lxer.com "left the station" |
| Ridcully Jan 21, 2015 5:05 PM EDT |
Thanks NoDough......I'll definitely keep that little mechanism in mind. |
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